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7.34pm
4 September 2009
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I grew up listening to the US Version. I never heard the UK version until the CDs came out in the late 80s. It took a few listens to get used to the order, but I do like the UK version more. I am fine with the running order as it is, but I agree that it could have used some tweaking.
Perhaps they could have chosen “We Can Work It Out ” or “Day Tripper ” as the single’s A side. The remaining song from the single put on the album and regulate a weaker album song to the B side.
In my opinion, any song that is considered to be a weaker Beatle song is stronger than most of popular / rock music.
Look Up The Number
5.21am
26 January 2017
Offline c64wood said
In my opinion, any song that is considered to be a weaker Beatle song is stronger than most of popular / rock music.
I don’t know about that. We shouldn’t erm… suck up to them that much to suggest that their worst tracks are masterpieces. To be honest I’d rather listen to a modern rap song than What Goes On , which is possibly the worst song of theirs (bar the comedy ones like Wild Honey Pie and ones that aren’t meant to be taken seriously, whereas WGO is genuinely intended to be good) that I’ve heard. The melody is boring, the harmonies sound grating and the guitar playing is probably the worst instrumental work in their discography.
I've been up on the mountain, and I've seen his wondrous grace,
I've sat there on the barstool and I've looked him in the face.
He seemed a little haggard, but it did not slow him down,
he was humming to the neon of the universal sound.
10.50am
3 February 2017
Offline Joe said
I’ve been listening to Rubber Soul over the past couple of days, and there’s something that’s always bothered me about it: I just don’t think it hangs together well as an album.The first few songs are killer: Drive My Car , Norwegian Wood , You Won’t See Me and Nowhere Man make up one of the best album opening sequences of their career. But after that it always feels like they just threw the song titles up in the air and put them wherever they landed.
Normally when listening to Beatles albums, at the end of a song I know exactly what’s coming next. They’re ingrained in me and I can probably recite almost all from memory. The notable exception is Rubber Soul . Even after 25 years of listening to it, the songs seem to turn up almost at random. There’s no arc to the album: side two (for those of you still in the pre-digital age) in particular seems particularly unstructured, with just a bunch of songs shoved together.
I know they recorded and released it very quickly at the end of 1965, and I can’t help thinking they could have come up with a better album if they’d spent a bit longer on it. Heresy, I know. I’m hesitant to say there’s a fair amount of filler on Rubber Soul , because it has a lot of die-hard fans, but apart from the better-known songs I simply don’t think it’s a great album. Am I alone in thinking the whole is less than the sum of its parts?
There’s ONE thing I would change on the album: have “Run For Your Life ” and “In My Life ” swap places on the album. “In My Life ” as one of the Beatles’ major masterpieces and greatest songs, benefits from the added spotlight of being the album closer, while the much weaker and polemic “Run For Your Life ” benefits from being buried in the middle of side two, not leaving a sour taste in your mouth after you finish the record. And if you remove “Wait “, a Help ! outtake, and add in Paul’s great “Woman “, which was written sometime in the same time period, you end up with this:
Side one
- Drive My Car
- This Bird Has Flown
- You Won’t See Me
- Nowhere Man
- Think For Yourself
- The Word
- Michelle
Side two
Add to that the non-album single of “We Can Work It Out ” and “Day Tripper ” and voila, you have probably one of the greatest albums of all time. Recorded in less than a month, no less!
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The Hole Got Fixed3.56am
15 March 2020
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I grew up listening to the cassette. I can’t remember what specifically was where but still expect different songs to come on at different points a la the cassette order. For whatever reason this doesn’t happen with any of the other pre-Pepper albums which I also grew up listening to on cassette. But it might just be because as a teen Rubber Soul was my favourite.
4.43am
Reviewers
17 December 2012
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Yeah, @GIMH, the Rubber Soul cassette sure is a weird one. I’ve still got the 1987 release.
SIDE ONE:
Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)
You Won’t See Me
Think For Yourself
I’m Looking Through You
Nowhere Man
Michelle
Wait
SIDE TWO:
Drive My Car
If I Needed Someone
What Goes On
Girl
In My Life
The Word
Run For Your Life
The only track that’s in the same place as on the vinyl is Run For Your Life !
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The Beatles Bible 2020 non-Canon Poll Part One: 1958-1963 and Part Two: 1964-August 1966
6.42am
15 March 2020
Offline I understand some chopping for the lengths etc but that sort of mashing up can only be arbitrary.
7.43am
28 March 2014
Offline Shut up, it’s the bloody Beatles….
BEATLES Music gives me Eargasms! 
4.26pm
Reviewers
Moderators
1 May 2011
Offline ‘Help ‘ was the first i got with ‘I Need You ‘ as the opener. That was my first ever Beatles cassette.
They were released before the standardising of the Beatles catalogue when the CD’s came out in 1987, tho you could still buy them in shops for a few years on. The running orders were mad, tho Im pretty sure for ‘Abbey Road ‘ only ‘HCTS’ and ‘CT’ were flipped.
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GIMH"I told you everything I could about me, Told you everything I could" ('Before Believing' - Emmylou Harris)
7.06pm
Reviewers
17 December 2012
Offline They were also re-released in 1987 as part of the standardising of the Beatles catalogue, @meanmistermustard. The Capitol version of RS, for example, was replaced with a Capitol edition of the UK album on vinyl, cassette, and the new fangled CD.
The standardisation was across all formats.
"I only said we were bigger than Rod... and now there's all this!" Ron Nasty
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The Beatles Bible 2020 non-Canon Poll Part One: 1958-1963 and Part Two: 1964-August 1966
4.21am
Reviewers
Moderators
1 May 2011
Offline Ron Nasty said
They were also re-released in 1987 as part of the standardising of the Beatles catalogue, @meanmistermustard. The Capitol version of RS, for example, was replaced with a Capitol edition of the UK album on vinyl, cassette, and the new fangled CD.The standardisation was across all formats.
What was rereleased? Am I going on about something different to everyone else? I’m talking about these (image taken from here)
"I told you everything I could about me, Told you everything I could" ('Before Believing' - Emmylou Harris)
3.51pm
15 March 2020
Offline meanmistermustard said
Ron Nasty said
They were also re-released in 1987 as part of the standardising of the Beatles catalogue, @meanmistermustard. The Capitol version of RS, for example, was replaced with a Capitol edition of the UK album on vinyl, cassette, and the new fangled CD.
The standardisation was across all formats.
What was rereleased? Am I going on about something different to everyone else? I’m talking about these (image taken from here)
No that’s certainly what I was referring to
7.34pm
Reviewers
17 December 2012
Offline Yeah, we’re talking about the same thing, @meanmistermustard; I’m merely referring to the fact that up until 1987 this was the RS cassette in the US:
And in 1987 that version was deleted and replaced, in either February or May (I agree with the sources that say May as that fits with the CD release but some sources say February), with the UK version of the album:
And the same happened in countries across the world that had variations on the UK albums, local variations available on vinyl and cassette were deleted and replaced with the UK catalogue.
Yes, the CDs standardised the canon, but that was also carried through to vinyl and cassette, making the 1987 cassette releases their final re-releases in that format (or, in many countries, their first time release of the UK album).
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The Beatles Bible 2020 non-Canon Poll Part One: 1958-1963 and Part Two: 1964-August 1966
5.35pm
15 March 2020
Offline When I got into The Beatles my dad gave me his cassettes and upgraded his collection to CD to enable that. When I upgraded I gave him some back as he’d just got a car with a tape player.
I definitely still have a couple but for sentimental reasons I’m considering searching the lot out on discogs. This discussion has reawakened this desire in me.
3.26pm
14 June 2016
Offline Those cassettes used the 8track tracklist for some reason. I am not sure why. I know 8tracks changed track orders due to length limitations, but cassettes don’t have those same limitations. The reason they used the 8track orders as opposed to the normal orders beats me, but the order comes from the 8track releases.
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"Sometimes I wish I was just George Harrison" - John Lennon
4.50pm
Reviewers
17 December 2012
Offline Auto-reverse, @William Shears Campbell. A lot of cassette players had auto-reverse, with the cassette not needing to be physically turned over to play both sides. A good feature when both sides are a similar length, but if one side is a lot longer than the other, you have a lot of silence to sit through waiting for the auto-reverse to do its job and turn the tape over saving you needing to crawl across and do it yourself.
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The Beatles Bible 2020 non-Canon Poll Part One: 1958-1963 and Part Two: 1964-August 1966
12.53pm
14 June 2016
Offline Ron Nasty said
Auto-reverse, @William Shears Campbell. A lot of cassette players had auto-reverse, with the cassette not needing to be physically turned over to play both sides. A good feature when both sides are a similar length, but if one side is a lot longer than the other, you have a lot of silence to sit through waiting for the auto-reverse to do its job and turn the tape over saving you needing to crawl across and do it yourself.
Interesting. I’ve only ever seen that explanation with the Ringo The 4th cassette where the 2 side closers were switched. It used to say something on the Wikipedia page, but it no longer does.
Here | There | Everywhere
It's ya boi! The one and only Billy Shears (AKA Paul's Replacement)
"Sometimes I wish I was just George Harrison" - John Lennon
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